News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-10
LITTLE FACTORY SLAVES.
PROFESSOR ADLER's POWERFUL APP.
PEALS For NEW YURK,S OVER
WORKED CHILDREN,
Story of Child Drudgery that Made II.
Hearers Weep.

A Story of Child DrudEery that Made IT..
Hearers Weep.
Professor Felix Adler told another
heart melting story of child drudperv in
the factories of New York to the So
ciety for Ethical Culture on Sunday.
The picture he drew was so pathetic
and powerful that many of the ladies
in the great audience were in tears when
he ended.
In answer to those who questioned the
statement that children four wears old
were compelled to work in America,
Professor Adler read this sentence from
General Walkers book on the wages
question:
So late as 1870 children were employed
in the brick yards of England, under
strange taskmasters, at three and half
years of age. Account is given US sick
ening in its details, of a boy weighing
fiftv-two pounds carrying on his head a
load of clay weighing forty three pounds
seven miles a day, and walking another
seven miles to the place where his bur-
den was to be assumed.
"Now, returning to our own State of
New York, " he said 81 must again de-
plore the absence of complete and official
be placed Through the kindness of a
lady physician, who is known as most
indefatigable worker among the poor,
am enabled to give you to day few
figures which are mll of the saddest in
terest.
APPALLING FACTS.
SIN the course of her investigation,
which extended over the eighteen
months prier to February 1, 1886, she
found among the people with whom she
came in contact $50 children between
ten and twelve years old who either
worked in shops or stores, or assisted
their mothers in some kind of industrial
occupation at home. OF these $50
children she says, 4 found only sixty
healthy" Do not these figures tell their
own CHASTITY story2 She tells of one
child who was brought to the Mount
Sinai Dispensary clinic in state of ex-
haustion from nosebleed. which was
directly traceable to overwork upon
sewing. This child was only ten years
old, but she added twenty or thirty
cents day to the family income An
other case she speaks of is that of child
who at three years was attacked with
infantile paralysis, a partially durable
disease. But the mother neglected her
little one. At five years the child began
to sew buttons n trousers, and now,
ten years after the attack, she is a help.
less cripple, but finishes a dozen pairs
of trousers a day. These are only two
cases out of hundreds of children at
tended.
again, she tells of a German family
where a woman and her aged father are
engaged together in working on trousers.
The woman does the main part of the
work; the old man of eight years and
the little girl of seven years sew on the
buttons. The weakness of declining
life and he weakness of dawning life
are yoked together in drearY companion
ship, and neither is respected by the re-
lentless industrial spirit of the e.
"There is only one case that she re-
members in which children under five
years were constantly employed This
was in German family, in which twin
girls of four and half years sewed on
buttons from six in the morning till ten
at night. The pay of these people is, as
a ru C, pitifully small. For finishing a
pair of trousers a woman receives four
teen cents, ten cents and as low as five
cents. BY incessant work a dozen pairs
can be finished in day. A boys waist
is made entire, including button holes,
for from thirty-five to fifty cents dozen.
Not more than dozen can one woman
make in day. This is fair average of
the wages earned by sewing women
working in their homes.
The children help. If they attend
school during the fourteen weeks requIr-
ed by law, they may be at work in the
early morning uRtil eight o'clock, and
again after school hours from four until
late in the night. Exact statistics are
wanting, but that single tndefatigable
worker among the poor should find 535
children, between the ages of ten and
twelve, engaged in industrial occupa-
tions, not more than sixty of whom are
healthy, is surely sufficient to show that
there is here malady which requires to
be cured.
CHILDREN sUPPLANTING ADULTS.
'This vast evil of child labor is not
due to accident or the peculiar pervers.
ness on the part f individual employers.
Everywhere steam power is taking the
place of muscular power; everywhere
machinery is undertaking the more diff
ticult and arduous operations which
were formerly performed by men. AS
the feebler strength of women and chill
dren is sufficient to feed and tend these
and as fema and child labor
is of necessity cheaper than that of men,
the tendency everywhere is to substitute
the labor of women and children for that
of male operatives
Here Professor Adler read from the
AnIOyer Rec en- a horrible story of
little childre shaving in factories and
learning to drink and curse and die.
''Iou may say" he added, "that the
of childre that you see around
you arc not exposed to such degrading
influences | have described. Woe to
US, indeed, as nation If the majority
of the children of this people were
already exposed to such deterioratIng
influences. But we know that there
are several hundred thousands of chill
dren e gagged in industrial occupations.
And this is the poi to be noted, that
the tendency to employ child labor is on
the increase, Now is the ii to check
this testimony. Shall we wait until the
blight of degeneration has fallen upon
the majority of the children? Shall we
wait until the reckless spirit of indus
trialism has eaten out the core OF thu
strength of the whole people?
REPROACH TO CIVILIZATION.
81 have lately visited factories where
hundreds of young girls, all above the
legal age, worked. / cannot forget the
impression left upon my mind by the
,ype of face which | saw there. 1t is
ype which may be called the factory
ACE. You may distinguish it by its
whiteness. 1t seemed as if the shadow
If the grave or the blight of some lep-
rosy had spread over their faces. l can
not remember of having seen one fresh
and blooming face among them ali If
- 41o eff IL, l.